Lost parrot finds his way home with some help

Bird follows odd path for six months before finding happy landing.

Bird follows odd path for six months before finding happy landing.

January 22, 2006|LOU MUMFORD Michigan Columnist

It was fitting 10 months ago, when Zach Raymond picked up his $400 barely-feathered Senegal parrot at a South Bend pet store, that he named the bird Rosebud. Because Rosebud indeed has led a mysterious life, much like the mystery that classic film buffs associate with the word. "It (Rosebud) was based on 'Citizen Kane,''' Raymond said, referring to the final, dying word uttered by Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) in the 1940 movie. But the mystery surrounding the six-month disappearance of the now fully-feathered Rosebud has been resolved. As it turns out, Rosebud's flight for freedom was nipped very quickly in the bud. "I left the door open ... and I had forgotten I had left the cage open, too,'' Zach's wife, Rachel, said. "He just took off ... I just stood there on the porch for a good 20 minutes with my mouth open.'' Despite her shouts, a return trip wasn't on Rosebud's itinerary. Zach, 31, said he spent the next several days canvassing the neighborhood, also to no avail. "It was pretty upsetting. It was hard for us ... we had raised it from a baby,'' he said. "What started out as a science project (for the children) turned out as an actual pet.'' Enter Leslie Galup, a Niles woman who was playing tennis in a summer league the following day at nearby Leeper Park. Galup said things were going well until the wayward parrot initiated a series of aerial maneuvers. "The parrot was swooping down at us. Some people were freaking out,'' she said. "When the parrot landed on the net on the court next to me, play stopped. I'm kind of the known animal lover on the team -- I once rescued and raised a baby squirrel -- so they let me take over. "I walked up to it, talked to it softly and he climbed on my finger. Then he walked up my arm and sat on my shoulder. He actually nuzzled me.'' Galup said when she tried to turn the bird over to an official in the park office, the parrot squawked and balked. She finished her tennis game only after a ball hopper was converted into a cage. Galup said she thought about taking the bird home on the spot but decided against it after considering the reception it would receive from her two dogs. She said St. Joseph County Animal Control officers took control of the bird, but she was so concerned she reclaimed it three days later. "I had to pay $5 for it,'' she said, chuckling. "I actually gave them $20 because I thought it was for a good cause.'' Concerned the parrot had been traumatized, Galup took it to South Bend's Gilmer Park Animal Clinic, where the parrot was determined to be a young male Senegal. The bird remained at the clinic only a few days before Cheryl Wells, a veterinary assistant, took it home. "I felt bad for him,'' Wells recalled. "It was going to be there (at the clinic) alone for the weekend.'' Wells said her family in South Bend quickly bonded with the parrot. In fact, the group thought so much of it they spent $500 on a cage. "He's happy. He's a happy boy,'' Wells said. "We'll call the cat, and he (the bird) meows. That's the funniest thing he does.'' Galup, meanwhile, was well under way in her efforts to locate the bird's rightful owner. She said she placed a notice on the nationwide Web site www.lostandfound.com and received a half dozen responses. "One of the calls was from a woman in California,'' Galup said. "I told her I lived in Michigan. I said, 'Do you really think a bird could fly that far?''' Finally, last weekend, Galup's ad struck gold, in a strange sort of way. Rachel Raymond said her family received a call from a neighbor who had read a Tribune story on lost-and-found items and had noticed a reference to "a green parrot that whistles and gives kisses'' that had been discovered in Leeper Park. Zach Raymond's check of the Web site uncovered the ad. He followed up by contacting Galup and, eventually, Wells. "My first thought was, 'Oh, no, we'll have to give him back,'' Wells said. "He's become part of the family.'' But Zach said he's putting Rosebud's interests ahead of his own. Although he technically owns the parrot, he said he doesn't want to further traumatize him by uprooting him once again. In other words, he'll leave well enough, or Wells enough, alone with his $400 bird. "During this whole quest, of course, I wanted it back. But the main thing was I just wanted to know it wasn't dead,'' he said. "At this point, I'd probably feel more guilty if I took it back.'' Perhaps the only mystery remaining is the bird's moniker. Wells said she and her family had been referring to the parrot as Stewart but the name had yet to catch on. If Zach has another possible name in mind, she might be willing to listen. Lou Mumford Mum's the Word Lou Mumford is a Tribune columnist.